Ocean Spray Cranberry Sauce Cans Full of Water Instead

At least a handful of Thanksgiving shoppers opened their Ocean Spray cranberry sauce cans last week and found water instead of sauce.

"We're aware of a few reports about cans containing water instead of cranberry sauce, and we're looking into how this may have happened," Ocean Spray said in a statement to USA TODAY.

Millions of families enjoyed their cranberry sauce this holiday season, but even one can of sauce not meeting expectations matters to us.

One video posted on TikTok Saturday, November 29, shows someone opening three cans of Ocean Spray cranberry sauce to reveal they contained water. One can was opened on camera. The viral video has been watched over 10 million times.

In another video posted on Facebook Friday, November 28, a customer complained they'd purchased four cans of jellied cranberry sauce but only found water.

"This was my Ocean Spray cranberry sauce yesterday… 4 cans…who else had this happen?" the customer wrote. One can was opened on camera using an electric can opener.

More Complaints

Additional customers visited Ocean Spray's website and left complaints about buying cans filled with water instead of sauce.

"Opened 2 cans full of clear water," one person wrote. "Have used this since I was a child very upset no sauce for Thanksgiving."

That's rough. Planning your Thanksgiving meal around cranberry sauce, opening the cans on Thursday, and discovering you've got water instead of the jellied cylinder everyone expects.

Ocean Spray's Response

The company said it's reached out to individuals who shared videos "to learn more and make it right."

Ocean Spray didn't offer additional information about the incidents. No explanation yet for how cans got filled with water instead of cranberry sauce during the manufacturing process.

How This Happens

Manufacturing defects occur. Something goes wrong on the production line. Cans that should contain cranberry sauce get filled with water instead. Quality control should catch this before products ship, but occasionally things slip through.

The question is how many cans got affected. Ocean Spray says "a few reports" and "millions of families enjoyed their cranberry sauce." So this appears to be a small batch problem rather than widespread contamination.

But "a few" is vague when multiple videos showing multiple cans exist. One person with three bad cans. Another with four. Others reporting two cans. That's at least nine confirmed cans filled with water.

If multiple people bought multiple bad cans, that suggests either a specific production batch had issues or multiple batches got affected.

The Timing

This happened during Thanksgiving. The biggest cranberry sauce day of the year. People bought cans specifically for their holiday meal, opened them Thursday, and discovered water.

Can't exactly run to the store on Thanksgiving Day when most places are closed. So families either went without cranberry sauce or scrambled to find alternatives.

Ocean Spray picking the worst possible time to have a manufacturing defect. Not that there's a good time for cans to be filled with water instead of product, but Thanksgiving specifically makes it worse.

What Ocean Spray Should Do

The company says it's reaching out to affected customers to "make it right." That probably means refunds and replacement products.

But they should also explain what happened during manufacturing that caused cans to be filled with water. And what they're doing to prevent it from happening again.

Customers who've been buying Ocean Spray for decades want to know this was an isolated incident, not a sign of declining quality control.

The Viral Factor

Ten million views on the TikTok video means a lot of people now associate Ocean Spray with water-filled cans. Even if this was a tiny percentage of total production, the viral videos make it seem like a bigger problem.

Ocean Spray calling it "a few reports" while viral videos rack up millions of views creates a disconnect. Feels like they're downplaying the issue.

Maybe it genuinely is just a few bad cans from one production batch. But when those few cans get opened by multiple families on Thanksgiving and documented on social media, "a few" stops feeling accurate.

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